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ORATION 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



CITY COUNCIL AND CITIZENS 



c 



BOSTON 



ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

JULY 4, 1894 

BY lyS 

Hon. JOSEPH H: O'NEIL 

[Document 68 — 1894] 




BOSTON 

PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE CITY COUNCIL 

1894 



CITY OF BOSTON. 



In Board of Aldermen, July 5, 1894. 
Resolved, That the thanks of the City Council be and 
hereby are extended to Hon. Joseph H. O'Neil for the 
eloquent and patriotic oration delivered by him on the 
Fourth of July, in commemoration of the One Hundred 
and Eighteenth Anniversary of American Independence, 
and that he be requested to furnish a copy of the same for 
publication, and a portrait of himself, to be inserted in said 
volume. 

Adopted unanimously by a rising vote. Sent down for 

concurrence. 

Alpheus Sanford, 

Chairman. 

In Common Council, July 19, 1894. 
Concurred unanimously by a rising vote. 

Christopher F. O'Brien, 

President. 

Approved July 23, 1894. 

Nathan Matthews, Jr., 

Mayor. 

A true copy. 

Attest : 

John M. Galvin, 

City Clerk. 



ORATION. 



Mr. Mayor and Fellow Citizens : 

We meet to-day to celebrate the Nation's birthday, 
to congratulate ourselves and the world on the bless- 
ings we enjoy ; to send forth greeting to the people of 
other lands with the heart-felt wish and hope that 
they, too, may enjoy the blessings of a free government 
of the people. 

It is a wise custom of the people of this country to 
hold these yearly meetings, to bring to mind the 
blessings of a free government ; to call attention to 
the hardships endured before these blessings became 
our heritage ; to revive these recollections in order 
that these rights may be the better appreciated; to 
ensure their continuance in the path laid out by the 
great men who blazed the way, by keeping up the 
high standard raised by them and transmitted to us, 
so that we in turn may say to those who are to follow : 
Behold the standard of the fathers, pure and unsullied 
as when placed in our hands, we give it to you with 
no stain upon its folds ; look to it that it be trans- 
mitted in like purity to those who come after. 



6 OKATION. 

It would be difficult to discover when public meetings 
were not held in the city of Boston to discuss public 
measures, because it was believed that a proper under- 
standing among men and nations brings about an oppor- 
tunity for agreement. It has been believed in all 
times that a calm discussion of public questions and 
a commemoration of great events result in a better 
understanding amongst the people ; so that in this city 
of ours men were wont to meet to consult together, 
and to protest together, against any infringement of 
their rights. These meetings, however, had no fixed 
time for gathering and no great events to commemo- 
rate, until the Boston massacre of 1770, when five 
citizens were killed on King street, now State street, 
by the British troops stationed in the town. Each 
recurring anniversary of the massacre was commemo- 
rated by the people, to incite them to a realization of 
their rights and powers. Each year, for thirteen years, 
this anniversary was celebrated, until in 1783 it gave 
place to a greater one — that of the day we now 
celebrate. 

The War of the Revolution was over. All-powerful 
England had been obliged to conclude a treaty of peace 
with the colonies on the terms proposed by the 
colonists themselves. The effect of the public meet- 
ings called to protest against and denounce the odious 
writs of assistance to aid the customs officers to collect 
the imposts of the King, calling forth as they did all 



JULY I, 1894. 7 

the fire, eloquence, and indignation of an outraged 
people, constantly grew in effect and force until the 
whole people felt as one individual in their opposition 
to the oppression of England. This fire, intensified by 
the massacre of 1770, culminated at Lexington, where 
the blood of the people was shed in the cause of human 
liberty ; Concord and Lexington became sacred ground 
to the lover of freedom and the people, and a new star 
of hope appeared in the heavens for the enlightenment 
of the world, where it shines as a Mecca of hope, bring- 
ing welcome to those who choose to come to enjoy its 
beneficent light. But, more than that, it taught the 
world's ruler to tremble before the wrath of an out- 
raged people ; and freedom for the world began to don 
its holiday garb, — for a great blow at human slavery 
had been struck when American independence was 
announced. 

From the time of the acknowledgment of our inde- 
pendence, to the present day, no break has occurred 
in the programme of our good city in the celebration of 
the Nation's birthday as each July 4th comes around ; 
and each recurring year but adds to the fervent 
love and veneration we all hold for this the best land 
under the sun. The best, not alone in what it has 
done for us, but in the good effect it has had on other 
lands. 

One hundred years ago to-day John Phillips (father 
of Wendell Phillips, one of Boston's great orators), who 



8 OEATION. 

afterwards became the first Mayor of this beloved city, 
was selected by the town authorities to deliver the 
annual oration, and in that address he said : 

" The effects of the event we this day commemorate 
were not confined to our own country, but soon ex- 
tended across the Atlantic." 

And so its effects have gone rumbling on, shaking 
the thrones of tyrants, awakening the hearts and lift- 
ing up to a higher plane of freedom all civilized 
people. 

From the date of our independence until to-day the 
world has never seen such progress. Our people, the 
most intelligent on earth ; our shores, three thousand 
miles apart, tied by bands of steel and traversed by 
water arteries ; while the telegraph conducts our 
thought with almost the rapidity of the mind itself, 
and the telephone enables us to talk with people one 
thousand miles away, so that the tales of the Arabian 
Nights, the wonders of Monte Cristo, and the vivid 
imaginings of Jules Verne seem but commonplace 
when viewed in the light of current events. 

It was a noble heritage handed down to us ; it 
should be none the less noble when it leaves our hands 
and is deposited with those who come after us. The 
question which should impress itself upon our minds 
is, How can we best transmit this great heritage to 
our descendants? 

A distinguished orator has said that " he knew no 



JULY 4, 1894 



light to guide his footsteps in the future but the light 
of past experience," and it does seem that, on this day 
of days to us Americans, nothing better can be done 
by us than to turn back and examine the lives 
of the great men who preceded us, and gather wisdom 
from their acts. Especially is this true to-day, when 
some people seem to forget the fundamental principles 
on which this Government rests, and are endeavoring 
to cure by legislation all the ills which man is heir 
to, and, instead of relying upon themselves, demanding 
of the Government the relief which it was never in- 
tended it should give. It is true that the friends 
of a republican form of government may look with 
fear and trembling at the vast accumulations of wealth 
which we see being created in this country, and 
the thought must force itself on reflecting minds, 
whether the predictions of those who were opposed to 
a republican form of government in the last century 
are to become true, when they said "that soon the 
poor in the United States, worse than another inroad 
of the Goths and Vandals, would begin a general 
plunder of the rich; " and it might seem from some of 
the demands for legislation which are now being made 
that the great principles on which this Government 
was created are to be swept away. 

The men who framed the Constitution under which 
we live were opposed then, as we should be opposed 
now, to too much government. They believed then, 



10 ORATION. 

as we should believe now, in the freedom and the 
independence of the individual under the law. They 
believed that this independence was the bulwark of 
the State and the country. It was on that basis they 
built up the structure we now enjoy, and we should 
see to it that no addition is made which destroys 
its harmony or disturbs its foundation. 

One hundred and eleven years have rolled away 
since the acknowledgment of our independence by the 
world, and during that time many changes have taken 
place. You have heard the Declaration of Independ- 
ence read ; every school-boy should know it by heart ; 
every school-boy should study the lives of Jefferson, 
its author : of Sam Adams, its father ; of John Adams, 
the Colossus on the floor of the Continental Congress 
during its preparation ; — and a careful perusal of their 
lives will make all better citizens and better men. 

Read the inaugural address of Jefferson, when he 
explained the principles of the Constitution to be 
"equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever 
state or persuasion, religion or politics." Let the men 
who are to-day engaged in un-American attempts to 
foster any kind of strife between different classes or 
creeds in our community post up, where they can be 
constantly before them, these words of Jefferson, and 
remember that civil and religious liberty must go hand 
in hand. One cannot exist without the other, for the 
death of the one means the destruction of the other. 



JULY 4, 1894. 11 

Let them remember that in the same inaugural 
address he declared one of the vital principles of our 
system to be " absolute acquiescence in the decisions 
of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from 
which there is no appeal but force, the vital principle 
and immediate parent of despotism." 

Let them ponder on the life of Sam Adams, the 
father of the Revolution, the indefatigable worker, to 
whom more is due than to any one man ; a man of the 
people, who believed in the people, and whose faith in 
them never faltered. He believed then, as we should 
believe now, that the people should support the Gov- 
ernment, and not, as some would have it, the Govern- 
ment the people. A man of the people himself, a 
firm believer in them, frowned on by the possessors 
of wealth, and denounced by the colonial governor of 
the Commonwealth as belonging to a committee com- 
posed of " black-hearted fellows whom he would not 
choose to meet in the dark." 

Despite calumny and poverty, despite the price 
which was set upon his head, spurning the munificent 
offers made by the emissaries of the English Govern- 
ment, he never wavered in his fight for the rights of 
the people ; and while he was doing his share in 
Massachusetts, Thomas Jefferson was doing the same 
for the people in Virginia. Jefferson, on whose tomb- 
stone is written: "Author of the Declaration of 
American Independence, of the statute of Virginia for 



12 ORATION. 

religious freedom, and Father of the University of 
Virginia." Independence, civil and religious liberty, 
education for the people, what greater monument could 
mortal wish ? 

There never has been any difference amongst the 
great minds of this land as to the importance and the 
necessity of freedom, both civil and religious. It was 
so declared by Lord Baltimore in the Catholic colony 
of Maryland, where religious freedom was first tol- 
erated in this country, — tolerated at a time when 
religious prejudices ran high in Europe, and higher 
still in this country. 

The more we study the lives of these men the more 
we are convinced that they must have been in- 
spired by God to do the work they did, for except 
we believe in such inspirations how else can we view 
these remarkable words written by Sam Adams in 
September, 1773, when he said : 

" As the colonies are blessed with the richest treas- 
ures of nature, art will never be idle for want of stores 
to work upon ; and that being instructed by the 
experience, the wisdom, and even the errors of all ages 
and all countries, will undoubtedly rise superior to 
them all in the scale of human dignity, and give to the 
world new and bright examples of everything which 
can add lustre to humanity. No people that ever trod 
the stage of the world have had so glorious prospects 
as now rise before the Americans ; " and only three 



JULY 4, 1894. 13 

years later Jefferson said : " No age will ever come 
when it will cease to be seen and felt on either conti- 
nent that a mighty step, a great advance, not only in 
American affairs, but in human affairs, was made on 
the 4th of July, 1776." 

How well the prophecies of these famous men have 
been fulfilled, let us who stand here more than a 
century afterwards tell. A country at that time of 
scarcely three million souls, now numbers sixty-eight 
millions. A narrow strip of land on the Atlantic coast, 
our country then, now stretching from ocean to ocean, 
and from lake to gulf. This, too, in spite of the fact 
that great men who have come after them, — men whom 
we are taught to revere, and do revere, — have pro- 
tested over and over again against the acquisition of ter- 
ritory. Webster protested against the addition of Texas 
because the country was already large enough. Benton, 
and most of the statesmen of his day, against the 
extension of the country beyond the Rocky Mountains, 
" for," said he, " God in His wisdom has erected those 
mountains as a natural boundary for the Republic ; " and 
yet we have gone on extending our territory, lifting up 
our people, educating them, growing in wealth and 
population, notwithstanding the doleful tones we hear 
from those who would try and profit by the misfor- 
tunes of their Government. In spite of the depression 
of the times, we are in better financial condition and 
more prosperous to-day than any nation on earth. 



14 ORATION. 

So that it is our duty to see what can be done to 
add to the structure handed down. If any dangers 
exist to the body politic, remove them ; if any evils 
exist, remedy them.^ That dangers exist, no one 
doubts ; danger exists to man as well as to nations. 
A gust of wind may blow a portion of the roof of a 
building down on our heads as we walk the streets, 
and may prostrate us on the ground ; something may 
happen in this great Republic of ours which human 
mind cannot foresee which might destroy the structure 
of a century, but we all know the experience of the 
past, — hope for the future, and, trusting in God, 
believe in the future glory of the Republic. We do not 
believe that present dangers seriously threaten a country 
which withstood the jealousies that originated after 
a seven years' war with the most powerful nation on 
earth ; which has prospered, notwithstanding violent 
party dissensions in the past ; which has withstood two 
foreign wars and one great civil war ; which has seen 
a President of the United States elected by Congress 
and not by the people, and two Presidents die by the 
hand of assassins. We do not believe that the words 
of Montesquieu will become true of this country, 
that "if a republic is small, it is destroyed by a 
foreign power ; if it is large, it is destroyed by internal 
disorder." No people on earth have ever shown in the 
time of trial and tribulation the great moral courage 
and good sense which has been time and again shown 



JULY 4, 1891. 15 

by the American people; and experience has proven 
this wonderful courage and good sense by the fact that 
no party and no man in this country can take the 
wrong side of a moral question and not meet sooner or 
later certain defeat and condemnation by the people. 
The people mean to be right, — they are not always 
right, but are seldom wrong, — and bound to remedy a 
mistake when they see it. 

Who does not remember the words of Webster put 
into the mouth of John Adams ? " The people, if we 
are true to them, will be true to us, and will carry us 
gloriously through this struggle;" and in these days, 
when we see some signs of internal disorder, caused by 
industrial depression, it may worry some people and 
cause them to believe that these signs presage danger 
to, if not the dissolution of, the Republic. 

Those who remember the trying times of '61 and '62, 
when the people of the North were unwilling to believe 
that real war was upon them, — but when they found 
that it was on, how grandly and nobly they rallied, for- 
getting party affiliations, for the defence of the general 
Government, — will feel assured that the good sense and 
love of law and order shown by the people in '61, will 
be displayed again to-day whenever they believe that the 
country is really in danger. That the country is in an 
unsettled condition no one can deny, but that it is in a 
dangerous condition no real American will admit. 

It is true that the people are disturbed when they see 



16 ORATION. 

vast fortunes accumulated almost in a day. When 
they see corporations with capitalizations going up into 
the hundreds of millions, until the figures appall the 
ordinary mind. That something must be done to remedy 
this great increase of fictitious wealth, — for much of it 
is fictitious, — to remedy the power of corporate interests, 
is unquestionably one of the problems of the times. It 
is claimed by some that this can only be done by Gov- 
ernment ownership of these vast corporations ; but once 
this step is taken, where will it stop ? What will be- 
come of the boasted independence of the individual ? 
It is true that these things ought not exist, and yet 
the cause of them is not hard to find. We have gone 
through a period in the history of this country which 
threatened the entire dissolution of our fabric of 
government. We found one section of the country 
arrayed in civil war against the other section. The 
times called for men of strong character and powerful 
determination ; men of action rather than of thought ; 
men who were not called upon to carefully measure the 
future consequences of their acts, except so far as they 
aided for the time being in preserving the unity of the 
Government. These strong men, used as they were to 
manage the Government, began to manage their pri- 
vate concerns in the same way, and being in position 
to call the Government to their aid, by its assist- 
ance were enabled to receive vast profits on their 
accumulated wealth. The times called for rapid 



JULY 4, 1894. 17 

development, and enormous advantages were given to 
capitalists by means of which the most fabulous for- 
tunes were accumulated. No one denies the necessity 
by legislation to curtail the powers of corporate wealth, 
and yet he who believes in the good sense of the 
American people cannot but think that a short time 
will remedy these evils. Our people, the most intelli- 
gent on earth, are already discussing these questions; 
and the result of their deliberations will unquestion- 
ably crystallize into laws, that corporations may be 
placed on the same plane of business on which the 
individual stands. But it is only by law and by orderly 
methods it can be done, by respecting the maxim laid 
down by Jefferson : of absolute acquiescence in the will 
of the majority as expressed at the ballot-box, and 
nowhere else. No one doubts that we have too many 
corporations in our ordinary business affairs. No one 
doubts that this evil is spreading rather than dimin- 
ishing. Men who have been enabled by the conditions 
of the times to amass vast fortunes in this country 
which are the wonder of the civilized world, find them- 
selves to-day anxious to preserve that property and 
transmit it to their children. They are unwilling to 
risk it as they do in individual enterprises, so that every 
day we see the incorporation of business houses with 
limited capital, rather than the preservation of the 
individual effort. While this is a step in the wrong 
direction, yet in these private corporations it remedies 



18 ORATION. 

itself; for if the enterprise be capitalized in excess of its 
proper valuation, competition enters in and. compels 
a reduction of the capitalization, a reduction of the 
profits, or else bankruptcy. 

Again, it is a well-known fact that the incorporating 
of these business concerns, while prosperous for a day, 
does not last in competition with the private concerns ; 
for the man who wishes to avoid the risk of losing all 
his money, and forms a stock company of his business, 
in which he places part of his capital and elects himself 
to a lucrative position, gives four hours a day where 
he was in the habit of giving eight when run by him 
personally ; elegant leisure takes the place of diligent 
attendance ; a few years of apparent prosperity, and the 
bubble bursts, and the creditors are settled with at a 
fraction for each dollar of indebtedness. So it is with 
the great trusts and corporations which we are told 
menace the safety of the Republic to-day. The men 
who manage these gigantic corporations are the same 
class of men, brought forward by the necessity of war 
to take great risks and manage great enterprises. The 
history of the world shows that energy and enterprise 
cannot be transmitted from generation to generation. 
The necessity of the occasion which compels these men 
to put the energy and the vitality into the organization 
and construction of so large a business disappears 
with the next generation, which finds it already cre- 
ated. The individual attention and individual interest 



JULY 4, 1894. 19 

of the merchant is not given to it ; again the bubble 
bursts, and the general results that have accrued 
from this vast amalgamated capital in the invention 
and introduction of the machinery which reduces the 
cost of manufacture to a minimum is thrust on the 
markets of the world, and once more individual com- 
petition has an opportunity of contesting for the busi- 
ness of the world ; good has come once more out of 
evil, and the wealth accumulated by one generation is 
distributed by the succeeding one. If, however, legis- 
lation can reach these gigantic corporations it should 
be had. Some means should be taken which would 
squeeze the water out of their capitalizations ; and 
if these gigantic monopolies are to be tolerated at 
all, they should only be tolerated on the basis of actual 
cash paid in for the construction of their enterprises. 
We have seen great railroad enterprises financiered in 
such a way as to call for the admiration of all men in 
the railroad world ; yet an investigation of this finan- 
ciering will show that it has only been done by scaling 
down the fixed charges, reducing the interest on its 
debt, and offering as a bonus increased burdens upon 
the road itself in the shape of additional stock, though 
the value of the road has not been increased. Our 
railroads all over the country are capitalized away 
and beyond their actual value to-day. This is a 
proper subject for legislation. This is one of the 
problems that ought be met, — this is an object 



20 ORATION. 

worthy of the enlightened understanding of the best 
statesmen in the land. Let the water be squeezed 
out. Capital is entitled to a fair return on the money 
invested ; it is not entitled to increase the capitaliza- 
tion of any of its projects beyond its actual value to a 
point which it is hoped will pay by the growth of the 
country in the years to come. This is a menace ; it is 
not a danger. It is a question which the good sense 
of the American people will remedy in time, and if, 
as is claimed, they control legislation, make that 
impossible. 

People are apt to talk too loosely about corruption 
in our public affairs. Some of it does exist, but not 
nearly so much as is talked of. Judas was bribed centu- 
ries ago to betray the Saviour of the world. Men who 
have come on earth since his day are no less human, 
and while man peoples the earth there will always 
be sin and sorrow. If anything can be done to cure 
this corruption it should be done; but it never can be 
while the law makes the giver and the taker of a 
bribe equally guilty, for it creates a bond of mutual 
protection which defeats the very object of the law. 
Make the law against bribery applicable only to the 
giver of the bribe, holding the taker harmless, — the 
bond is severed, and bribery will almost totally cease ; 
for no one will take the risk not only of losing the 
corruption money but his liberty as well. 

Nor is that other problem held up by some — immi- 



JULY i, 1894. 21 

gration — a real danger to this country. Immigration 
in all times has been held to be a healthy stimulus to 
the growth of the country. We are not like some 
countries of the world, so crowded that increased popu- 
lation becomes dangerous. This great country of ours 
is in fact hardly settled, and it would be well in this 
connection to remember that in the Declaration of 
Independence read to you to-day one of the causes of 
the revolt against the English king was, as set forth 
in that declaration, " that he had endeavored to pre- 
vent the population of these States, for that purpose 
obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners, 
refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations 
hither, and raising the conditions of new appropria- 
tions of lands." So that when the fathers made this 
declaration they were not opposed to, nor did they fear, 
immigration from the Old World. And in order, that 
it might be the better understood by the civilized 
world, after they had issued their embargo against any 
trade or commerce with England or her possessions, 
and to set themselves right in regard to this question 
of immigration, they issued on the 28th of July, 1775, 
an address to the people of Ireland, in which they 

said : 

" You have ever been friendly to the rights of man- 
kind, and we acknowledge with pleasure and gratitude 
that your nation has produced men of very noble 
distinction themselves in the cause of humanity and 



22 ORATION. 

America. On the other hand, we are aware that the 
labor and manufacture of Ireland, like those of the 
silk-worm, are of little moment to herself, but serve 
only to give luxury to those who neither toil nor spin. 

" We perceived that if we continued our commerce 
with you, our agreement not to import from Great 
Britain would be fruitless, and were therefore com- 
pelled to adopt a measure to which nothing but 
absolute necessity would have reconciled us. It 
gave us, however, some consolation to reflect, that 
should it occasion much distress, the fertile regions of 
America would afford you a safe asylum from poverty, 
and in time from oppression also ; an asylum in which 
thousands of your countrymen have found hospitality, 
peace, and affluence, and become united to us by all the 
ties of consanguinity, mutual interest, and affection." 

Just as they were not opposed to immigration then, 
so should we be not opposed to proper immigration 
now. If all the population of the United States were 
put into the great State of Texas there would, accord- 
ing to the Census of 1890, be but 260 people to the 
square mile, allowing about two and one-half acres to 
each man, woman, and child ; while in England and 
Wales there are 498, in Belgium, 548, and in Saxony, 
600 people to the square mile. In the United States 
there were but 21 people to the square mile by the last 
census, while on the whole continent of Europe there 
were 101. 



JULY 4, 1894. 23 

Even at the rate we are going on with immigration, 
centuries must elapse before our population can reach 
anywhere near the crowded condition of some of the 
European countries; but, long before that time has 
come, let us hope that we shall see the North Ameri- 
can continent, with the great area of Canada on the 
north and Mexico on the south, united under one flag 
as one people. 

All people agree that criminal immigration should 
not be tolerated, that we ought not allow paupers 
to be transported to our shores, and that those who 
are not mentally sound should be prohibited from 
coming here. 

But this country was settled by immigrants from 
other lands. Not from one country alone, for we must 
not forget that in these several colonies we had in these 
early days the French to the north of us, and the 
Dutch to the south of us ; that we had the Scotch in 
North Carolina, the French in Georgia, and the 
Spanish in Florida. 

We have grown up together until it has been 
well said that this country has become the smelt- 
ing furnace of the world, into which the desirable 
immigration from all the other countries is placed — 
combining the perseverance of the Yankee with the 
commercial knowledge of the Israelite, the indomi- 
table courage of the English and the enthusiasm of 
the Pole, the elegance of the Spaniard and the 



24 ORATION. 

eloquence of the Irish, the poetry of the Italian and 
the education of the German, the vivacity of the 
French and the common sense of the Scotch, the 
daring of the Scandinavian and the contentment of 
the Dutch, and coining out in the progress of time 
amalgamated into what we hope it may please God to 
be the perfect man. 

Let us not forget that, when these cries are raised 
for more and more legislation to elevate our institu- 
tions, progress never yet came from the enactment 
of laws, but rather from their repeal ; that reforms 
are demanded to remove barriers and not to construct 
them ; that man should be taught to depend upon 
himself and not the Government. And ao;ain let it 
be repeated that the people should support the Govern- 
ment, and not the Government the people. It was 
against laws enacted by the British Parliament that 
the fathers of the Revolution protested, and it was 
the repeal of those laws which they demanded. So 
that to-day we need not more legislation, but a broader 
and more complete understanding of the principles on 
which this Government rests ; a wider appreciation of 
the rapid growth which has taken place in this country 
within a hundred years. When one recollects that a 
hundred and eighteen years ago the Indians were used 
as allies by the English to subjugate the colonies, that 
one of the first acts of the Continental Congress was 
to establish trading-posts with the Indians at Albany 



JULY 4, 1894. 25 

and Schenectady, in New York, some idea of the vast, 
rapid growth we have acquired may be appreciated by 
the people ; and as the overgrown child needs watchful 
care by the parent to preserve its health, so this great 
land of ours, outstripping in growth the wildest imag- 
inings of men, needs to-day not a free rein, but rather 
a curb on legislation to prevent its growing in the wrong 
direction. 

Let us welcome to our shores all those proper peo- 
ple who desire to become citizens of our country, 
for every immigrant that comes here and partakes of 
the blessings of our free institutions, no matter how 
ignorant he may be when he arrives, one 4th of July 
such as we have here to-day, opens his eyes to the 
blessings of a freedom which he can never have enjoyed 
across the water, and the next mail carries the message 
to the people across the sea of the greatness, grandeur, 
and glories of this Republic. That message circulated 
and distributed in the locality from whence he comes, 
educates and enlightens the people of that community, 
and the great effect of such beneficent institutions helps 
not here alone, but all over the civilized world. But 
while we welcome proper immigrants to our shores, 
notice should be served in unqualified terms on all 
foreign countries that we will not tolerate the unload- 
ing on our shores of their criminals, paupers, or idiots ; 
that this country is neither a penal colony, an alms- 
house, nor an idiotic asylum, but a land where honest, 



26 ORATION. 

law-abiding people, able to support themselves and 
appreciate and uphold our institutions, are welcome, 
and where none others are wanted, — nor will they be 
accepted. We are not a dumping-ground for the cast- 
oil population of Europe, but our doors should be wide 
open to those who desire to enjoy the liberty denied 
them in the land of their birth. 

Here in this great country, cosmopolitan in its char- 
acter, we have no room for prejudice to govern, but 
broad, liberal, enlightened sentiment. Intolerance and 
intemperance have no room in this land of ours. They 
come like the summer showers, but they go like the 
mist before the sun. They are the mild diseases which 
affect the system of the Republic, just as the inclem- 
ency of the weather may affect the physical condition of 
the man ; but when the broad sunlight of God sheds its 
glorious light upon man or the people, intolerance and 
bigotry must give away before the doctrines of the 
men who, like Jefferson and Adams, demanded freedom, 
civil and religious liberty. Let us upon this day 
remember that this great Government of ours was 
founded on absolute confidence in the people. No man 
can succeed in public life who has not that great faith 
in them, nor can this government hope to prosper once 
it falters in its faith in the people. Let those sceptics 
who believe this immigration is dangerous — because 
they who have for one generation controlled public 
affairs have been compelled to give way to another 



JULY 4, 1894. 27 

generation who have become more numerous — but 
attend a public theatre when a patriotic play is 
being performed, and they will find that any allusion 
to the name of Washington brings forth a tumult 
of applause, that the sight of the American flag 
causes the audience to shout with enthusiasm, and that 
the name of the martyred Lincoln is appreciated and 
honored by plaudits that make the welkin ring. From 
whom come these plaudits ? From the wealthy occu- 
pants of the orchestra chairs, or the less wealthy 
occupants of the balcony ? Not at all ; but away up in 
the dome of the theatre, filled, if you please, with the 
gamins of the street, with the children of the poorer 
people, or, as some people would put it, the children of 
the dangerous classes, the children of the plain people, — 
these are the young patriots of to-day, who, when the 
flag of their country is in danger, will rally to its sup- 
port and defend it with their lives. There is no clanger 
to this Republic. Troubles there may be, but we have 
only to disseminate knowledge amongst the people, and 
there can be no danger. Let us never forget that knowl- 
edge is power ; that truth sets men free, and that 
if we but take care of the education of the people, the 
people will take care of the perpetuity of the Republic. 
Some people think that we are in danger from the 
power of the press. There is no danger in this country 
from that. Time was when the editorial columns of the 
newspaper could control public opinion, but. that day 



28 ORATION. 

has gone ; the strides which the people of this country 
have taken in education and intelligence have been so 
rapid that to-day's editorials in the newspapers are 
passed calmly by, or read only to see whether the 
opinions agree with those of the reader. The people 
read the news and judge for themselves, so that it 
is not now to the editor we need appeal to guard 
the interests of the people. But we have a right to 
demand such patriotism from those who furnish the 
news, that they shall realize the great responsibility 
which rests upon them ; that they see to it a high 
standard is maintained, for it is from what they pub- 
lish in the paper to-day that people make up their 
verdict on public questions. They should see to it that 
patriotism should be their guiding star, and while un- 
flinching in their determination to expose fraud, to 
punish corruption, and to do everything to elevate 
America and Americans, they should remember at the 
same time not to inculcate in the minds of their 
readers a feeling of contempt either for the Govern- 
ment or for the Government's servants, but rather a 
sentiment of love and loyalty for the institutions of 
the country, and respect for those who administer 
them. 

Let us, then, not feel alarmed for the safety of the 
Republic or its prosperity. We are now suffering, it 
is true, from the weakness the nation inherited from 
its abnormal growth of the past thirty years ; that 



JULY 4, 1894. 29 

weakness cannot be cured by additional legislation. 
It can only be cured by impressing on the people 
the lessons taught us by the great men of the Revo- 
lution, that freedom for the individual is the life of 
the nation. How many people have ever calculated 
the limit which is demanded by these people who 
demand governmental support ? Have they ever 
thought how long a republic could last which was 
based on such a system ? This Government is not, 
and should not be, a paternal government. When it 
becomes that, then the ambition of the individual and 
hope for the nation ceases ; because if the Government 
is expected to support the people, man will not be com- 
pelled to labor, and need have no ambition to better 
his condition. If all the great enterprises of the land 
are to be maintained by the Government, and an enor- 
mous civil list thereby created, what opportunity for 
advancement is there for the boys of the coming gener- 
ation ? It is difficult now for a boy, even with some 
advantages, to make progress in the world. Take 
away from him the necessity for making his way, 
remove his ambition to rise to a higher sphere in life, 
and the decadence of this Government has already 
begun. The hope of advancement, the desire for a 
higher station, a broader field of usefulness, are the 
hope of this Republic in the future, just as they are 
the mainspring of the individual, and the cause of the 
wonderful prosperity and remarkable progress we have 



30 ORATION. 

made in the eleven decades of our national life. Take 
them away, remove all ambition from the mind of the 
young, endeavor to make this a paternal Government, 
progress and energy will cease, socialism and paternal- 
ism step in, and dissolution and disruption must in- 
evitably follow. The man struggling for a livelihood 
becomes a better citizen when he owns a little home, 
takes a greater interest in the affairs of the Govern- 
ment, and helps lift up the average of his immediate 
neighborhood. There are. those who live to decry our 
American institutions, who love to declare that things 
are not as they were ; but when one reads the history 
of his country, and of the bickerings and jealousies that 
took place during the Revolution, which had to be con- 
ciliated in order to advance the welfare of the country ; 
when we remember the party factions and bitter per- 
sonal feuds that have existed during all these long 
years of the Republic, and remember that now the 
years of time have waved the clouds away from all 
these things, and look at the men as they stand 
exposed to view by their public acts, we are able to- 
day to love and venerate the memory of Jefferson 
and the Adamses, Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Benton, 
and all the great men who have gone before us in 
the earlier days of the Republic. 

Let us, then, on this anniversary of our birth as 
a nation, resolve to do what we can to incite patri- 
otism and love of country amongst our fellow-men. 



JULY i, 1894. 31 

Let us incite in them a love of country, coupled with 
respect for all our institutions. Let us educate the 
people to respect themselves by respecting those who 
represent them, and so lift up to a higher plane the 
people of our common country, confident, as we 
should be, that by so doing we are lifting up and 
elevating the whole civilized world. 

Here in Massachusetts, where the first seeds of the 
Revolution were sown, where the first blood was shed, 
where the first common school was established, and 
universal education was insisted on as necessary for 
the preservation of the State, where the Father of the 
Revolution, Sam Adams, breathed again and again 
into the world his faith and belief in the people, let 
us resolve to imitate his example, and declare our firm 
faith and confidence in them also. In adversity and 
trial they have shown their patriotism in the past, and 
in the future they will not be found wanting. 

Let us, then, lift up our hearts to God for all the 
blessings He has bestowed upon us. Let us beg of Him 
to pour forth His grace into the hearts of all our fellow- 
citizens, that as they love and venerate Him for His 
blessings, they may also love and respect the blessings 
themselves. 

Then may we, too, welcome the advance of future 
generations with implicit confidence in the future of 
our country, and the belief that while we have had 
great trials in the past, and must have more in the 



32 ORATION. 

future, we should remember that, tried by fire and puri- 
fied of low desire, our spirit shall but soar the higher ; 
and that all these things, let us hope, are but the prep- 
arations which God in His wisdom is making to bring 
about the day when the people of this continent, edu- 
cated, enlightened, and advanced, may be united in 
love of America under one flag, having for their motto 
that hope of every lover of his land — " One Flag and 
One Country." 



A LIST 



BOSTON MUNICIPAL ORATORS. 



By C. W. ERNST. 



BOSTON ORATORS. 

Appointed by the Municipal Authorities. 



For the Anniversary of the Boston Massacre, March 5, 1 770. 

Note. — The Fifth-of -March orations were published in handsome quarto editions, now 
very scarce; also, collected in book form, in 1785, and again in 1807. The oration of 1776 
was delivered in Watertown. 

1771. — Lovell, James. 

1772. — Warren, Joseph. 

1773. — Church, Benjamin. 

1774. — Hancock, John/ 

1775. — Warren, Joseph. 

1776. — Thacher, Peter. 

1777. — Hichborn, Benjamin. 

1778. — Austin, Jonathan Williams. 

1779. — Tudor, William. 

1780. — Mason, Jonathan, Jun. 

1781. — Dawes, Thomas, Jun. 

1782. — Minot, George Richards. 
1783. — Welsh, Thomas. 



For the Anniversary of National Independence, July 4, 1776. 

Note.— A collected edition, or a full collection, of these orations has not been made. 
For the names of the orators, as officially printed on the title pages of the orations, see 
the Municipal Register of 1890. 

1783. — Warren, John. 1 

1784. — Hichborn, Benjamin. 

» Reprinted in Newport, R.I., 1774, 8vo, 19 pp. 

1 Reprinted in Warren's Life. The orations of 1783 to 1786 were published in large 
quarto; the oration of 1787 appeared in octavo; the oration of 178S was printed in small 
quarto; all succeeding orations appeared in octavo, with the exceptions stated under 1863 
and 1876. 



36 APPENDIX. 

1785. — Gardiner, John. 

1786. — Austin, Jonathan Loring. 

1787. — Dawes, Thomas, Jun. 

1788. — Otis, Harrison Gray. 

1789. — Stillman, Samuel. 

1790. — Gray, Edward. 

1791. — Crafts, Thomas, Jun. 

1792. — Blake, Joseph, Jun. 2 

1793. — Adams, John Qoincy. 2 

1794. — Phillips, John. 

1795. — Blake, George. 

1796. — Lathrop, John, Jun. 

1797. — Callender, John. 

1798. — Quincy, Josiah. 2 ' 3 

1799. — Lowell, John, Jun. 2 

1800. — Hall, Joseph. 

1801. — Paine, Charles. 

1802. — Emerson, William. 

1803. — Sullivan, William. 

1804. — Danforth, Thomas. 2 

1805. — Dutton, Warren. 

1806. — Channing, Francis Dana. 4 

1807. — Thacher, Peter. 2 ' 5 

1808. — Ritchie, Andrew, Jun. 2 

1809. — Tudor, William, Jun. 2 
1810. — Townsend, Alexander. 
1811. — Savage, James. 2 

2 Passed to a second edition. 

3 Delivered another oration in 1826. Quincy's oration of 1798 was reprinted, also, in 
Philadelphia. 

4 Not printed. 

6 On February 26, 1811, Peter Thacher's name was changed to Peter Oxeubridge 
Thacher. (List of Persons whose Names have been Changed in Massachusetts, 1780-1892, 
p. 21.) 



APPENDIX. 37 

1812. — Pollard, Benjamin." 

1813. — Livermore, Edward St. Loe. 

1814. — Whitwell, Benjamin. 

1815. — Shaw, Lemuel. 

1816. — Sullivan, George. 2 

1817. — Channing, Edward Ttrrel. 

1818. — Gray, Francis Calley. 

1819. — Dexter, Franklin. 

1820. — Lyman, Theodore, Jun. 

1821. — Loring, Charles Greely. 2 

1822. — Gray, John Chipman. 

1823. — Curtis, Charles Pelham. 2 

1824. — Bassett, Francis. 

1825. — Sprague, Charles. 6 

1826. — Quincy, Josiah. 7 

1827. — Mason, William Powell. 

1828. — Sumner, Bradford. 

1829. — Austin, James Trecothick. 

1830. — Everett, Alexander Hill. 

1831. — Palfrey, John Gorham. 

1832. — Quincy, Josiah," Jun. 

1833. — Prescott, Edward Goldsborough. 

1834. — Fay, Richard Sullivan. 

1835. — Hillard, George Stillman. 

1836. — Kinsman, Henry Willis. 

1837. — Chapman, Jonathan. 

1838. — Winslow, Hubbard. "The Means of the Per- 

petuity and Prosperity of our Republic." 

1839. — Austin, Ivers James. 



6 Six editions up to 1831. Reprinted also in his Life and Letters. 

7 Reprinted in his Municipal History of Boston. See 1798. 



38 APPENDIX. 

1840. — Power, Thomas. 

1841. — Curtis, George Ticknor. " The True Uses 

of American Revolutionary History." H 

1842. — Mann, Horace. 9 

1843. — Adams, Charles Francis. 

1844. — Chandler, Peleg Whitman. "The Morals of 
Freedom." 

1845. — Sumner, Charles. 10 " The True Grandeur of 

Nations." 

1846. — Webster, Fletcher. 

1847. — Cary, Thomas Greaves. 

1848. — Giles, Joel. "Practical Liberty." 

1849. — Greenough, William Whitwell. " The Con- 

quering Republic." 
1850. — Whipple, Edwin Percy. 11 "Washington and 
the Principles of the Revolution." 

1851. — Russell, Charles Theodore. 

1852. — King, Thomas Starr. " The Organization of 

Liberty on the Western Continent." 12 

1853. — Bigelow, Timothy. 13 

1854. — Stone, Andrew Leete. 2 

1855. — Miner, Alonzo Ames. 

1856. — Parker, Edward Griffin. " The Lesson of 

'76 to the Men of '56." 



8 Delivered another oration in 1862. 

"There are five editions; only one by the City. 

,n Passed through three editions in Boston and one in London, and was answered in 
a pamphlet, Remarks upon an Oration delivered by Charles Sumner . . . , July 4th, 
1845. By a Citizen of Boston. See Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, by Edward 
L. Pierce, vol. ii. 337-384. 

11 There is a second edition. (Boston : Ticknor, Reed, and Fields. 1850. 49 pp. 12°.) 

12 First published by the City in 1892. 

13 This and a number of the succeeding orations, up to 1861, contain the speeches, 
toasts, etc., of the City dinner usually given in Faneuil Hall on the Fourth of July. 



APPENDIX. 39 

1857. — Alger, William Rounseville. 14 " The Genius 

and Posture of America." 

1858. — Holmes, John Somers. 2 

1859. — Sumner, George. 15 

1860. — Everett, Edward. 

1861. — Parsons, Theophilus. 

1862. — Curtis, George Ticknor. 8 

1863. — Holmes, Oliver Wendell. 16 

1864. — Russell, Thomas. 

1865. — Manning, Jacob Merrill. " Peace under Lib- 

erty." 

1866. — Lothrop, Samuel Kirkland. 

1867. — Hepworth, George Hughes. 

1868. — Eliot, Samuel. " The Functions of a City." 

1869. — Morton, Ellis Wesley. 

1870. — Everett, William. 

1871. — Sargent, Horace Binney. 

1872. — Adams, Charles Francis, Jun. 

1873. — Ware, John Fothergill Waterhouse. 

1874. — Frothingham, Richard. 

1875. — Clarke, James Freeman. 



14 Probably four editions were printed in 1857. (Boston : Office Boston Daily Bee. 
60 pp.) Not until November 22, 1864, was Mr. Alger asked by the City to furnish a 
copy for publication. He granted the request, and the first official edition (J. E. Farwell 
& Co., 1864. 53 pp.) was then issued. It lacks the interesting preface and appendix of 
the early editions. 

15 There is another edition. (Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1859. 69 pp.) A third 
(Boston: Rockwell & Churchill, 1882. 46 pp.) omits the dinner at Faneuil Hall, the 
correspondence and events of the celebration. 

16 There is a preliminary edition of twelve copies. (J. E. Farwell & Co., 1863. (7), 71 pp.) 
It is " the first draft of the author's address, turned into larger, legible type, for the sole 
purpose of rendering easier its public delivery." It was done by " the liberality of the 
City Authorities," and is, typographically, the handsomest of these orations. This re- 
sulted in the large-paper 75-page edition, printed from the same type as the 71-page 
edition, but modified by the author. It is printed " by order of the Common Council." 
The regular edition is in 60 pp., octavo size. 



40 APPENDIX. 

1876. — Winthrop, Robert Charles. 17 

1877. — Warren, William Wirt. 

1878. — Healy, Joseph. 

1879. — Lodge, Henry Cabot. 

1880. — Smith, Robert Dickson. 18 

1881. — Warren, George Washington. " Our Repub- 

lic — Liberty aud Equality Founded on Law." 

1882. — Long, John Davis. 

1883. — Carpenter, Henry Bernard. "American Char- 

acter and Influence." 

1884. — Shepard, Harvey Newton. 

1885. — Gargan, Thomas John. 

1886. — Williams, George Frederick. 

1887. — Fitzgerald, John Edward. 

1888. — Dillaway, William Edward Lovell. 

1889. — Swift, John Lindsay. 19 " The American Cit- 

izen." 

1890. — Pillsbury, Albert Enoch. " Public Spirit." 

1891. — Quincy, Josiah. 20 "The Coming Peace." 

1892. — Murphy, John Robert. 

1893. — Putnam, Henry Ware. "The Mission of our 

People." 

1894. — O'Neil, Joseph Henry. 



17 There is a large-paper edition of fifty copies printed from this type, and also an 
edition from the press of John Wilson & Son, 1876. 55 pp. 8 U . 

18 On Samuel Adams, a statue of whom, by Miss Anne Whitney, had just been com- 
pleted for the City. A photograph of the statue is added. 

19 Contains a bibliography of Boston Fourth of July orations, from 1783 to 1889, 
inclusive, compiled by Lindsay Swift, of the Boston Public Library. 

20 Reprinted by the American Peace Society. 



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